Communities of Support and Practice for SEL with Jim Vetter

Jim Vetter the executive director of the Social Emotional Learning Alliance for the United States-SEL4US- shares how this collection of state alliances supports classroom teachers and schools to develop and promote strong social emotional learning initiatives. This is the first of a two part series featuring the work of educators within SEL 4US.

Links

https://sel4us.org/ Social Emotional Learning Alliance for the US website

https://sel4us.org/in-your-state/ State alliance websites

Transcript

Scott Lee: Greetings friends and colleagues, welcome to The Thoughtful Teacher Podcast, the professional educator’s thought partner-a service of Oncourse Education Solutions. I am Scott Lee. If you would like to learn more about how we partner with schools and education organizations please visit our website at www.oncoursesolutions.net and reach out.

Today we have the first in a two-part series featuring the work of the Social Emotional Learning Alliance for the United States or SEL 4 US. In this episode I’m sharing a conversation with Jim Vetter the executive director and founder of SEL 4 US. Jim has promoted social and emotional health and well-being for over 25 years. He currently is a member of the Massachusetts Community Behavioral Health Promotion and Prevention Commission. In past roles he served as Associate Director of Health and Technology at the Education Development Center and was director of Programs and Services at the Open Circle SEL. He has also consulted with the Second Step program as well as numerous schools and school districts implementing social emotional learning initiatives. We will start our conversation with Jim sharing his unusual path leading him to this work.

Welcome Jim to the Thoughtful Teacher Podcast. 

Jim Vetter: Thanks so much, Scott. 

Scott Lee: So first off, tell us a little bit about your background and how you became interested in social emotional learning in the first place. 

Jim Vetter: I started out, my first career was as a performer.

My undergraduate degree was in the theater, and as I did that work, I started doing more and more performances and artists and residencies in the schools. And through that work I started doing shows that were about, first they were about self-esteem, then conflict resolution, violence prevention and then that was right around when the field of social emotional learning was emerging. And I got on board with that. Did, did some research, found out what were the evidence-based programs at the time. Got trained as a trainer in some of those and got to the point where I realized if I was going to be as much help to the schools and districts I was working with as I wanted to. I needed to learn more.

So, I went back and I did a mid-career masters that was specifically focused around SEL and effective program implementation. So that's sort of gotten connected in the field. 

Scott Lee: So, you started out as an artist, then a teaching artist, and, came in that way rather than, through the classroom. So, you kind of got hit with the bug in an, in an unusual way, I guess. So now you are the, executive director of the National SEL 4US organization. Tell us a little bit about that organization and what it does and the mission, and then how, how the organization came about.

Jim Vetter: The Social Emotional Learning Alliance for the United States SEL 4US connects and organizes local SEL champions across the country to promote the practice of effective SEL and to advocate for policies that support effective SEL and the reason why we're in operation. We know, and I know that you had Chris Cipriano on this podcast just a few months ago. [Mm-hmm.] We know the evidence that when students have an evidence-based, thoughtful social emotional learning approach within the school. They do better on so many different levels academically, uh, as well as socially, emotionally mental health. Kids get along better. There are fewer disputes or fights.

We know that there are, and it's really sets kids up for positive ability to have a strong career. We know that being able to get along with other people is hugely important all through life. So we know how important it is, and we know that all across the country there are people in every state who see the value of social emotional learning, who are doing good work around social emotional learning, and often may feel isolated at the same time.

There are national and international organizations that are developing frameworks and resources, but there's not always a connect there. 

Scott Lee: Right. 

Jim Vetter: So, there may be somebody in a classroom who cares about promoting the social emotional competency, wellbeing of their students, maybe doing good work around it, but may not know where the teacher in the next classroom is doing, or the teacher in the next school, and certainly not the teacher in the next town over.

So, when folks are feeling isolated in that way, it can be harder to keep going and it can be harder to keep up with what's the latest in the field? What do we, what do we know about What really helps students develop their social emotional competencies? So, by connecting and organizing these local SEL champions that can help folks, can help each other to improve practice all across the state, and we know that policy's hugely important too.

And that can be both state legislation, that can also be school board policy when people come together and advocate for policies that support social emotional learning. We've seen the benefit of that, and we've also seen that these days in some places, there are attacks on social emotional learning. And one of the things that to be most effective.

Being able to counter attacks like that, or really kind of head them off is if people spread the word about what social emotional learning really is and share the, the evidence, the research, which is strong, and also share the stories. Student stories, educator stories, parent family stories about what SEL really looks like in their own community, in their own school, and the kind of positive benefits they're seeing. That's hugely influential. The people who have questions about SEL or may have some resistance to SEL typically are people who don't really know much about it, have not seen it in their own situation, have not had a chance to see how it's being enacted, maybe even in their own community. 

Scott Lee: Right. Yeah. It, it is kind of funny. I, I sometimes have that conversation with people. It's like, “well, no, I don't want, SEL we don't want social emotional learning that, doesn't sound right.” Whatever. And when I start asking, “oh, well, what do you think about bullying prevention? What do you think about, , students working together to solve conflicts?” 

I can go on and on and, and they're like, “Oh yeah, I'm for all that.” And then they just don't realize 

Jim Vetter: Exactly, Scott. Yep. 

Scott Lee: Yeah. So, you mentioned advocacy and, and working with school boards, and at the state level. Why is that so important and why is that needed?

Jim Vetter: It's really important that we have policies in place that support effective social emotional learning. We know that there are lots of educators who wanna do this work, and if educators are not getting support to do this work, or in fact, if the work is getting blocked, then it makes it so much more difficult.

Educators have a lot on their plates. There's a lot that they need to do to, to give the kind of the positive education that we want for all of our children. So, if there's something that becomes a kind of a problem issue, then it's possible that that kind of falls by the wayside. And if we want our young people want the children in our families or communities to succeed academically and in life. We need to make sure that there's strong social emotional learning in place in every school and throughout our communities. So that kind of policy can really make a difference. It can affect things like funding. There are policies around what kind of standards educators need in order to receive their licenses.

And then on the school board level. When it comes to deciding on the budget for the school district, the result, there are a lot that gets decided about where, what's important, what gets focused on. When people talk about that, when we look at a budget, a budget is actually a moral document.

It shows what's important. So, if people on the school board. I don't know how much the community values social emotional learning for their own children. Then sometimes this isn't as prioritized as we know it should be. 

Scott Lee: So as educators, what should teachers be doing besides being concerned about, kind of the political issues that are going on and the rhetoric, what are some things that they can do or should be doing?

Jim Vetter: It's really important that educators share with the families of their own students what they're doing around social emotional learning. And we've seen that happen over and over again, that in situations where families know what this SEL work is, if, if it's high-quality work, if it's not just some sort of slap dash thing, if it really is high quality.

Ideally evidence-based social emotional learning approaches. When families know what that work is, overwhelmingly families are supportive. So that and that, and that's also good right from the beginning because we know that this kind of work around supporting young people and thriving socially, emotionally, a lot of that work is done in the family.

Scott Lee: Mm-hmm. 

Jim Vetter: So, we want to have a strong partnership with what families are doing and what educators are doing, what out of school time professionals are doing. So that kind of communication is really important. And being able to communicate to a broader community about what they're doing around social emotional learning also helps build that, that kind of reinforcement.

Of the social emotional learning competencies and it really builds that kind of support for SEL. So that's why just coming up, not many weeks away right now, there's international social emotional learning day, SEL Day, and that is an opportunity where communities really all across the United States and in many countries around the world, take that day and that week.

SEL day kicks off March 2nd, 2026, kicks off SEL Week, that whole week. And during that day and that week, many communities are celebrating the work that they're doing and really disseminating, sharing the work that they're doing around social emotional learning, maybe having events within their community, within their school, maybe sharing out in newsletters that go home to family.

Maybe sharing on social media, we see a lot of amazing social media posts that get tagged with that hashtag SEL Day. So folks are in the community and their educators or their family members or anybody who cares about this kind of supporting social emotional wellbeing of young people, there's an SEL Day website and folks can go right on there and just sign up for SEL day and then they'll get lots of inform, they'll get support and information around how they can use tools to support to celebrate SEL in their community on SEL day and SEL week.

Scott Lee: Yeah. And, that is a great event and a great way for teachers to work together and find out more about what they're doing. And, and just to be clear this is not about promoting a particular program, right? 

Jim Vetter: Absolutely. Absolutely. There are dozens of high-quality evidence-based, social emotional learning, curricula, training programs, pedagogical approaches. There's not just one way to do this and to do it well. 

Scott Lee: Right, which is, is something I think sometimes people don't realize there's no one thing that's gonna work exactly right and be the perfect thing for every single community, every single school, every single, group of students by any stretch. So, one question that I'm thinking about as you're mentioning, talking to parents and working in the community and things like that. I know sometimes teachers come across a situation or they're working in a school where some decision maker at some level, either at the school level, possibly at the district level, has brought in a program that is rather weak, not necessarily that it does no harm, but it really does no help for a variety of reasons. Either not implemented fully, not funded, whatever. What's some advice you have for teachers possibly in a situation like that? 

Jim Vetter: Teachers can do a lot in their own classroom with their own students. It can be frustrating if the resources that are being provided are not very good or not very well supported, and individual teachers can still. Do their own kind. Look, look for their own resources, a as many, many teachers do in many areas. And be able to make sure that they're doing high quality work in their classrooms.

And then I think it's really important to connect with other educators that can be other educators within their own school or district that care about social emotional learning. And then really this whole idea about building a network. Connecting with other educators in the state who also care about social emotional learning.

And folks can come together, many of the Social Emotional Learning Alliance, United States alliances that in each state do a kind of peer, have a kind of peer sharing network where folks will come together and share, “Hey, this is what we're doing in our community. And we, we looked at the research, we are using this kind of approach or training program, curriculum. What are you using?” And you know, how did you get enough training for throughout your district that you could really have this happening and what's the kind of support that you put in place and how are you connecting with families And that kind of peer support can really make a huge difference in that kind of implementation you were talking about and in being able to sustain the work over time. 

Scott Lee: Mm-hmm. And I think that's important to point out, the Alliance is really not one organization. It is a collection of state and local organizations. Right. 

Jim Vetter: 26 states right now, have SEL 4 US alliances 

Scott Lee: mm-hmm. 

Jim Vetter: And growing regularly. 

Scott Lee: Yeah. Yeah. So, what are some, interesting things or good things that, some state chapters have been doing, that you might like to share about this idea about peer learning?

Jim Vetter: Peer support has been really key in a number of states. SEL 4 Virginia has a regular community of practice where educators across Virginia come together and share best practices and, and really troubleshoot with each other as well. Massachusetts has a kind of similar network that is for district SEL coordinators in some states.

A few years back, a role started to emerge on the district level. Someone sometimes actually has that title. Maybe the SEL coordinator for the district or SEL director for the district, or it may be somebody with another title that just has this as their responsibility among, sometimes among other responsibilities as folks were finding themselves in that job. Getting those jobs a few years back those were brand new positions. Sometimes the superintendent would say, “oh, you know, I'm so glad you know you're well stepping into this position; it's really up to you to help create that job.” And folks were like, “that's so exciting! Oh no! Gosh, what am I gonna do?”

And so, folks started reaching out and created this whole network across the state of folks who are doing this work, who come together typically monthly and share information. And then there's an email list that folks sign up for. I'm on that list. Uh, I see that just regularly people will reach out and say, “boy, you know, we're looking for professional development around social emotional learning for the high school. Who have you used? Who was good? That kind of resource goes around or, or we're having this kind of challenge, how do you, how have you dealt with this?”

Having that kind of peer network really helps keep moving the work forward, and we've seen that in a bunch of states. We also see a number of states will do just kind of open meetings that monthly they'll have a webinar where they'll highlight some sort of social emotional learning success story around the state.

We've also seen folks come together around this advocacy. We've seen states that have successfully, through their own advocacy, have been able to get social emotional learning into the standards for educator, for teacher and administrator licensure. We've also seen in a few states where there were bills that were filed that would've really inhibited or sometimes prohibited social emotional learning in the schools, and folks came together.

And they contacted their legislators. They were interviewed by local media. They wrote op-eds. When there was a hearing in the legislature, they put together testimony. They had students testifying educators, family members, talking about how critically important the work is. An educator saying, if you really wanted me to remove any social emotional learning from my curriculum. I would have no good pedagogy left. We know that it's not a separate thing, that there can be separate social emotional learning lessons. Direct instruction can be helpful and it's really woven in throughout the day. And what we've seen is when that happened, when folks came together and we're able to tell the story, show the research, and tell the practical stories of what it looked like. Those bills have gone down. They have not gone through. 

Scott Lee: Yeah. Yeah. Because you can't separate having a classroom culture that has a sense of belonging for every student from your pedagogy. It just, it can't be done. Unless you're going to come in and take role and lecture for 55 minutes and leave.

Jim Vetter: You know, that's not very good education. 

Scott Lee: Right, right. It wasn't in the medieval period and it still is not now. 

Jim Vetter: Exactly. 

Scott Lee: So, where's the organization, or the collection of organizations, headed in the future? Now you mentioned 26 states, I'm sure more and more states are being added. But what else is going on in addition to that? Or along with that? 

Jim Vetter: We see that kind of growth both within the number of states that are forming these alliances and within each state we see more and more people signing on and becoming part of this work. And the same kind of thing happens on the organizational level that I was mentioning happens in this kind of peer sharing within states. We have the leaders of these alliances across the country come together monthly. In fact, we just had one of those meetings recently where folks come together and they share what they're doing in their own states. Uh, just recently folks were sharing about California developed a social emotional learning mini grant program that they were implementing very successfully inspired by what SEL for Vermont had pioneered, and now North Carolina, some other states are looking at that as a possible model, the same kind of thing where states will offer professional development, professional learning programs around social emotional learning, that we see those things spread from state to state as well. All of these kinds of models. And so, so we see both expanding outward by going wider, more people, more states. And we also see states going deeper, finding deeper ways to support social emotional learning within their own communities, within their own states.

Scott Lee: So, what are some resources where people can find, and I'm sure there's two main groups. Some people who are listening are in states that have alliances and don't know that they're there possibly. And some people are in states where there's not an alliance yet. What are some resources for each of those groups? 

Jim Vetter: The first place to go, if folks are in either of those situations, if they go to the SEL 4 US website, which is SEL, the numeral four us.org, there's a tab right there that's “in your state.” If folks go to that, that tab, they can see a map that shows where the states are across the country that have alliances right now.

If they see that they're in a state that isn't one of those alliances, you just click on the state, that will take you to that state's website. You can get connected. If folks are looking at this map and think, “hmm. I see the state next to me has an alliance, but my state doesn't yet.” Then there's a little form that folks can fill out and let us know that they may be interested in forming an alliance in their state.

And that happens regularly and we've got a whole kind of a support program that we provide to state to folks in states who are interested in at least exploring the idea of forming a grassroots alliance there. 

Scott Lee: Mm-hmm. And if somebody is totally by themselves in a state where there's not an alliance, you can connect them with the folks that also are in their state that have also expressed interest. And, and eventually that's kind how state alliances form anyway. It's uh, right. 

Jim Vetter: Absolutely. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Folks, whether they're in a state with alliance or not on the website, there's a “Join Us” button. Folks can join. If you're in a state that has an alliance right now, we'll then help right away will help connect you up with the folks in your state. And if not, you can be part of the national network and get updates and opportunities that are going out nationally all the time. 

Scott Lee: Well great. And we will be sure and link to those as well on our website, for this podcast also. Thank you so much for joining us today, Jim.

Jim Vetter: Scott, it is a pleasure. Thanks for inviting me.

Scott Lee: The Thoughtful Teacher Podcast is brought to you as a service of Oncourse Education Solutions. If you would like to learn more about how we partner with schools and youth organizations strengthening learning cultures and developing more resilient youth, please visit our website at w w w dot oncoursesolutions dot net. Also, please follow me on social media, my handle on Instagram and Bluesky is @drrscottlee and on Mastodon @drrscottlee@universedon.com

This has been episode 4 of the 2026 season. If you enjoy this podcast, please tell your friends and colleagues about us, in person and on social media. Also, five-star reviews on your podcast app helps others find us. The Thoughtful Teacher Podcast is a production of Oncourse Education Solutions LLC, Scott Lee producer. Guest was not compensated for appearance, nor did guest pay to appear. Episode notes, links and transcripts are available at our website w w w dot thoughtfulteacherpodcast dot com. Theme music is composed and performed by Audio Coffee.